Purely Pump and Kool-Aid

[janice shell]

Hey, I detest the neocons. But I don't think they pushed the European nations into forming the EU. There was once--and in many places still is--a lot of enthusiasm for it. That was chiefly for economic reasons. It made travel easier, and opened up employment opportunities, among other things. I have a British friend who taught at an English university, though his dream was to work in Italy. Until the late 90s, that was impossible. At that time, the borders were opened, and any EU person could work in any EU country. He was offered a job at a university in Venice.

Obviously the EU, while a "union", has never been entirely unified. Unlike the US, they have an unwieldy number of languages to deal with, and national cultures that differ more widely than what we have here. But the EU still isn't a bad idea. Nationalist movements in a number of European countries have led to very nasty wars many times in the past.

And speaking for us, we need balance. Reckless adventurism--like Dubya's and the neocons' stupid invasion of Iraq--is a bad thing, but so is isolationism. I don't really think we're "pissing off" Russia. Putin is not one of the Good Guys. He'd like nothing better than a return to the glory days of the Soviet Union; we need to keep an eye on him and make sure he knows he can only go so far.

Take a look at this:

https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trump-isnt-the-presidential-candidate-we-should-be-worried-about/

I don't entirely agree with it, but it's an interesting and thought-provoking perspective.